The Tazewell-Orange.com Blog: Bottles from Christiansburg, VA and Radford, VA

Radford, VA actually has a connection to my area in the personage of Isaac Greenspon who ran the Radford Ice Company which also bottled at one point. Greenspon would eventually become a partner in an ice plant in Pocahontas with the Kwass brothers, and after that enterprise dissolved, created the Isaac Greenspon Manufacturing Company in Bluefield, WV where he made candy and bottled soft drinks in the teens. The bottles shown are some that I found interesting, like most of these semi-locals tend to be, and are from the Cassco Bottling Works. This bottling company was a part of the Cassco Refrigerating Corporation, which was an Ice maker based in Harrisonburg, VA. They had several branches two of which had bottling operations, which Radford appears to be the first of, and the other was located in Waynesboro, VA.

A 7oz Cassco Beverages dated 1945. This one only lists Radford, VA as the bottler.


A 7oz Cassco Beverages bottle dated 1946. They changed the label design and obviously opened another bottling branch in Waynesboro, VA.

Christiansburg, VA is just a few miles away from Radford, VA, and as it turns out was much more successful as a bottling town, including the creation of their own Coca-Cola imitator, Banner Cola. The Christiansburg Banner Cola Corporation was incorporated on November 1, 1919, with J. W. Pepper listed as President, and P. L. Kenley as Vice President. This company appears to have lasted for several decades with bottles dating as late as the 1950's. It is possible that the Banner Cola Corporation started out as the Christiansburg Bottling Works, and after the creation of their new leader brand changed their name. The strangest bottle is the Cloverdale Soft Drink bottle from the Norment Bottling Company, Inc. of Roanoke and Christiansburg, VA which is dated 1964. I can find no information on this bottler which sounds like it had a main plant in Roanoke, VA and a branch in Christiansburg, or visa versa.